26 COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



anatomical structure ; because Cuvier, of whom it is said that 

 he was "the best of men, the most brilliant of writers, the 

 soundest of thinkers, the most far-sighted of philosophers, 

 the purest of statesmen, and the greatest naturalist of mod- 

 ern times," grew dogmatical under the adulation of court life. 

 And he found it necessary, later in life, to apologize for the 

 bad taste of Humboldt who, while holding a place in court at 

 Berlin, " criticized and satirized severely everything connected 

 with it." The patronage, the splendors, the titles, and the 

 temptation of courts were all before him and within his reach, 

 when he came to America as a popular lecturer, educator and 

 investigator. 



Now, sir, we are all grateful for the scientific wealth which 

 Agassiz brought to our shores, and lavished upon our people. 

 We admire the imperial march of his mind through all the 

 realms of philosophical knowledge. We accept the cosmical 

 laws which he found written all over the earth's surface by 

 the moving glaciers ; we follow his classifications, which 

 pointed out to each animal group its place in creation, and 

 made zoological order out of speculative and theoretical 

 chaos ; we are subdued into entire submission by that mental 

 power which could arrange the long and intricate and half- 

 hidden record of palaeontology, and point out where this ends 

 and anatomy begins, in the great continuous line of a fossil 

 and living animal kingdom. The rapid and patient industry 

 to collect facts — the grasping and judicious comprehension to 

 classify them — the lofty survey which deduces the general 

 law, — who can measure the scientific genius of him who pos- 

 sesses all these faculties in healthy combination? These 

 Agassiz had, and more. 



When he assumed the duties of a popular teacher, he also 

 took upon himself the duties of a learner — an untiring, 

 honest, unassuming searcher after truth. To secure knowl- 

 edge was his first impulse ; to convey it, the next. He was a 

 good teacher of youth, because he felt that every scholar had 

 a right to demand of him a thorough knowledge of what he 

 taught, and because he knew how to draw from the humblest 

 something worth adding to the store which he already pos- 

 sessed. He took part in public education, not because he felt 

 the high importance of what he was to bestow, but because 



